Radioactive Metal Complexes for Tumour Diagnosis and Therapy

A team under the direction of chemist Prof. Dr Peter Comba is investigating radioactive metal complexes for use in the diagnosis and treatment of tumours. In their recent studies at Heidelberg University's Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, the researchers demonstrated that developing radiopharmaceutical tracers based on indium and actinium shows great promise for new radiopharmaceuticals.

The radiopharmaceutical tracer concept uses a biological vector to locate diseased tissue in the organism. The vector, such as a peptide or an antibody, is marked with a radioactive element and administered to the patient. This radiative unit accumulates at its target, and depending on the element's decay process, the radiation can render the tumour cells visible or destroy them. “One important advantage of this method is that it can be used to find individual cells and thus allow treatment of very small tumours”. explains Prof. Comba.

The radioactivity in these drugs is so strong that only very small concentrations are needed to visualise or destroy tumours. Picomolar to nanomolar solutions are used. The concentration of radioactive atoms in such a solution is about one million times smaller than that of sodium ions in the blood.

According to Prof. Comba, there are many reasons for labelling biological vectors with radioactive metal ions. There is a wide range of available elements and isotopes with ideal half-life times, decay processes and energy for diverse applications. The metal ions are bound to organic molecules called bifunctional chelators (BFCs), which in turn are attached to the tumour-seeking biological vectors.

The research results were published in “Chemistry - A European Journal”.

To read more please visit: http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/radioactive-metal-complexes-for-tumour-diagnosis-and-therapy.html

Source: Innovations-report